Julian,
Agree with what you're saying, in fact had I known what a farce JAR would have been, I would have gone ahead and just done the FAA PPL, seeing as I seem to spend most of my time flying over there due to the huge costs involved here.
As a brit (with an American girlfriend :-) ), I tend to frown on a lot of the things the Americans get up to (gun laws and the like)....but when it comes down to flying and GA, then they have got it down. The number of times I've had to search for JAR regs, or even posted questions on forums which even examiners find hard to answer is amazing. The FAA system is clear, concise, and most importantly laid down in stone, unlike JAR which seems to be laid down in some sort of runny mud!
I believe that even the CAA are (unofficially) not 100% behind JAA, the release of this NPL proves this. This licence will be solely administered by the CAA, and no JAR involvement, and as you can see from the NPL 'spec', medical requirements are less stringent, TT is less stringent etc...of course the licence is less useful, as it is only valid in the UK....or is it....the UK is a member of the ICAO and therefore rights of transfer exist between other member states...?